Saskatoon's price tag for consultants in 2015 tops $18M

A breakdown of some of the $18.63 million the City of Saskatoon spent on consultants in 2015:

$3.98 million on the two P3 projects, the north commuter bridge/Traffic bridge and the civic operations centre

$1.89 million on water projects, including $1.15 million on the 42nd Street reservoir project

$2.64 million on interchanges and bridges

$7.43 million on other capital projects, like the city’s growth plan ($543,000) and the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan ($585,000)

$600,000 for communications and marketing

$321,000 on counselling services

$213,000 on internal audit services that were outsourced

$139,000 on website support

The City of Saskatoon spent $18.63 million on external consultants in 2015 — more than the City of Toronto spent in any of the previous five years, according to each city’s numbers.

Saskatoon’s price tag was also higher than the $11.33 million total the City of Regina spent on outside consultants for six years from 2009 to 2015.

However, the City of Saskatoon’s chief financial officer said residents are receiving good value for the money and it’s cheaper to hire experts when you need them rather pay for permanent full-time staff.

“It’s very cost effective,” Kerry Tarasoff said in an interview this week.

According to a report on its way to Monday’s finance committee meeting, the city spent just under $16 million on consultants for capital projects and another $2.68 million for operations. The report defines a consultant as a professional who is contracted to offer expert advice.

The report is a response to criticism of the city’s use of consultants in January by veteran Coun. Pat Lorje, who said city hall was becoming “consultant crazy.”

“My jaw dropped,” Lorje said in an interview Wednesday after seeing the report. “I knew that things were getting a little out of hand, but I had no idea. Why don’t we just privatize the entire city?”

Tarasoff said he could not account for the vast difference between Saskatoon and other cities like Toronto and Regina. Saskatoon did, however, contract out some services like internal auditing and included it on the list of consultants, he said. The city paid internal auditing consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers $213,000 in 2015.

Tarasoff said different cities may define consulting in different ways, making comparisons difficult.

“You need the expertise,” he said. “You need the information. You need advice. We don’t have it. To me, there’s a risk if you don’t do it. Are we prepared to take on that risk? No, I think we’re prepared to spend a little money and get advice that’s going to be professional, and it fills a void that we don’t have.”

Tarasoff did not have consulting spending from other years to compare with 2015, but said it was slightly higher than usual. The total number of consulting payments in 2015 was 229.

The City of Regina, by comparison, lists 20 consultants for 2015. The City of Toronto lists 144 payments to consultants in 2014, the most recent year available on the city’s website. Toronto’s website updates a full list of consultants and payments each year.

The City of Saskatoon spent just under $4 million on consultants in 2015 for its two big P3 projects, the civic operations centre and the venture to build two new bridges.

“Engineers, for example, building bridges and interchanges — we just don’t have them sitting in the back closet waiting and pull them out when you need them,” Tarasoff said.

“My jaw dropped. I knew that things were getting a little out of hand, but I had no idea. Why don’t we just privatize the entire city?” — Coun. Pat Lorje

Lorje remained unconvinced and said the spending is “out of whack” with other cities. The city’s reliance on consultants is growing, she added.

“What are our (city hall) staff doing?” she asked. “It’s absurd. We have been building interchanges and bridges for years in this city. Have we learned nothing?”

The city employed 127 people with the title of either engineer or engineering technologist in 2014.

The report says the city uses consultants for outside expertise in specialized fields like management, engineering, accounting, law, human resources and marketing.

In 2014, the city employed seven accountants and another 54 people with accounting in their title, like clerks; 11 solicitors and one lawyer; 10 human resources consultants and nine marketing managers or directors. In total, the city employed 3,526 people in 2014.

By comparison, Regina spent just over $1.75 million on consultants in 2015. The most the City of Toronto spent on consultants from 2010 to 2014 was $18.3 million in 2012 — still less than Saskatoon in 2015.

“When you take it into context of a billion-dollar budget, $18 million is not a lot of money,” Tarasoff said.

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